Actor Ranveer Singh has surely set a benchmark with his performance in Dhurandhar. While his role in the Aditya Dhar film is said to be his career best, in the past, Ranveer has also played various other challenging roles. Until Dhurandhar, Ranveer Singh’s performance as Alauddin Khilji in Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s Padmaavat remained his most challenging role, for which the actor had famously said that it sent him in a dark place and impacted him personally. However, his character in Dhurandhar precedes that now. In a conversation with Men’s XP, Ranveer Singh’s business partner Nikunj Biyani recalls their conversation where Ranveer said playing Hamza and Jaskirit Singh Rangi in Dhurandhar was more challenging than playing Alauddin Khilji.
What Ranveer Singh sais about playing Hamza in Dhurandhar
In his recent interview, while Nikunj praised Ranveer Singh’s Dhurandhar, he shared, “I saw Dhurandhar first day first show for both the movies, I loved the film. Dhurandhar 2: The Revenge, for me, was the best film of all time. I enjoyed part one as well, but part 2 was something else. We were chatting with him once, and we asked him if he would do something that would be as demanding as Khilji, and he said, ‘This character has been way more challenging for me, as an artist; it has taken so much more out of me. I have had to go deep and give it 300 percent; it has been very demanding.’”
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Hamza ‘took so much more’ than playing Khilji
In 2019, Ranveer Singh spoke to India Today about locking himself in a room for weeks to prepare for his role as Alauddin Khilji. He had shared how he avoided meeting people, moved to a new apartment closer to the set, and read many books about Khilji.
“I took 21 days and locked myself up in my Goregaon house. I was completely isolated. I kind of isolated myself, marinated into the character because I can’t relate to Alaudin Khilji, I can’t relate to that level of manipulativeness, greed and ambition. I had to tap into dark experiences but his world view is not something I can relate to also,” he continued.
Khilji took Ranveer Singh to a dark place
He added that the process became ‘dangerous’ for him. “Stuff that I have buried in my conscience, that I had to dig out in order to play this character. And it was not always pretty, which validates my apprehension. I knew how deep I had to go into this rabbit hole. I would have had to go into this dark, black space. This abyss that could be dangerous for me. And it was.”
In 2018, Ranveer had said, “When I was offered Padmaavat, most people thought that a hero should not play the anti-hero. But I believed otherwise. I saw Khilji as a challenge for me, as an actor. And I wanted to take the challenge up. I went with the vision of Sanjay Leela Bhansali and my instinct of what I could achieve with Khilji.”
He had also shared, “I took a big risk with this character, and it’s wonderful to see my gamble pay off. This kind of validation gives one the confidence to take bigger and bigger risks, challenge stereotypes, and continue to push the envelope in the realm of mainstream Hindi cinema. I feel very happy and very fulfilled today.”
Ranveer Singh as the co-founder of Super You
Nikunj, who is the co-founder of Super You, also spoke about Ranveer Singh’s creative genius and involvement in the brand. He said, “We get to see the other side of Ranveer Singh. The world has seen this one side of him, which is an insanely talented actor or superstar. They have seen him in his public appearances as an extremely high-energy person. We also get to see his other side, where he is so detail-oriented about everything. He is so thoughtful about anything that goes out. He is very well aware of what’s happening and anything that he is doing. He is that extreme energy guy all the time, whenever you meet him, but he is also the person who goes very deep into everything.”
Nikunj further added, “He will want to know the smallest of details, and then he absorbs everything, activates his creative muscles, and then come these sharp creative insights. When we started, he told me that my background was business, product, and operations. I trust you fully with it. I understand content and how to land a certain narrative or story, and you trust me with it. As long as that is there, we have nothing to worry about. He has never gotten involved in things that he will not have valuable input into. He was clear with this from the get-go. He has known everything that has been going on.”
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Recalling Ranveer Singh’s detail-oriented approach in their first brand film, Nikunj shared, “The first brand film that we did, he has literally taken screenshots frame by frame and given feedback himself. He said which shot can be better, if we can alternate one option with the other, and I don’t know what kind of memory he has. He will remember something from 20 years ago about you that you did not know, it’s scary. He has a crazy memory. He is extremely detail-oriented. He is creative in these impactful ways.”
